Jack Grealish has marked his return to the Aston Villa starting lineup by firing his side into a 1-0 lead away at Leicester City.

City, boosted by a vocal home backing, made a brighter start to the contest and fired away the game's first meaningful shot through Danny Drinkwater's near miss.

The Villans' first big chance fell the way of Scott Sinclair soon after, when Gabby Agbonlahor unselfishly looked to pick out his teammate with a pass across the face of goal which the winger failed to capitalise on.

It was then Leicester's turn to up things, coming close through both Wes Morgan and in-form Riyad Mahrez - neither of whom could quite find a way past Brad Guzan.

With a quarter of the game gone, the best opening of the first half up until that stage fell the visitors' way after Carles Gil closed down a clearance and played in the returning Grealish, but his finish lacked the quality needed to beat Kasper Schmeichel.

Grealish was able to make amends six minutes before the break, though, curling the ball out of the grasp of Schmeichel to open his account for the season in just his second outing.

Shinji Okazaki almost levelled the scoreline in the dying embers of the opening 45 minutes, but he failed to direct his header on target.